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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 0358.PDF
358 FLIGHT. 18 March 1%Q This Air Ministry photograph is cryptically stated to portray Bristol Bloodhound surface-to-air guided weapons in service with an air defence missile squadron of RAF Fighter Command. Several Bloodhound bases are now being equipped, and the photograph is certainly the first to show truly operational missiles in their proper livery Missiles and Space flight PIONEER 5 Many "firsts" have already been achieved by the 901b vehicle of this name, launched by Thor-Able from Cape Canaveral last Fridaymorning, March 11. Planned to orbit the Sun with a period of 265 days, Pioneer 5 has a period of 311 days,and passes within 8m miles of the orbit of Venus. Solar batteries energize transmitters with a peak power of150W. Not only is this far greater than in any previous space- craft, but their power can be conserved by limiting periods oftransmission to a few minutes every hour by command from Earth. The instrument used for this purpose is the radio telescopeat Jodrell Bank (rented by NASA at £50 per hour), and early on Monday it was in contact with Pioneer 5 at a range of 407,000miles. (Picture, page 356.) CANADIAN BOM ARCS When the CF-105 Arrow was cancelled in February 1959, theBoeing IM-99B Bomarc was adopted in its place. According to the original agreement with the US government, Canada wouldhave paid one-third of the total cost of the programme, the remainder being met by the US Defense budget. A revised agree-ment was revealed by Randolph Pearkes, Canadian Minister of Defence, on March 7. He said that his department will now berequired to cover only the cost of constructing the bases; estimated at $15m (£5,360,000). All the missiles and their launching equipment, representinga total investment of $72m (£25,725,000), will be supplied by the US without charge. Later, however, Canada might spend about$100m (£35,700,000) in contributions to an extension of the American SAGE electronic defence environment to cover theDominion, and enable Bomarcs to be deployed efficiently. Two IM-99B bases have so far been named: at North Bay RCAFstation, Ontario, and at Mont Laurier, Quebec. Both should be complete next year. Below left, previously published several times in Soviet journals, this photograph is thought by NASA to portray the ballistic rocket used by the Soviet Union to launch the dog-carrying Sputnik 2 on November 3, 7957. The configuration and shape of the vehicle—and especially the bulges on its sides and the apparent fins—are curious SATURN: BETTER AND SOONER On January 22 we outlined the plans of the National Aeronauticsand Space Administration to develop a much improved version of Saturn, the largest space-vehicle system at present being builtin the West. It is now clear that this programme is regarded by NASA as its chief launching system for at least the next fiveyears, and that every effort is being made to accelerate the develop- ment of a series of even better versions. Speaking before a meeting of the American Rocket Society inWashington earlier this month, Milton W. Rosen, assistant direc- tor of vehicles in the Launch Vehicles office, confirmed that thefirst three-stage device, designated Saturn C-l, would be launched in 1964. The next model will be the C-2, with four stages, andplans are also in hand for a five-stage C-3. In each of these systems the last stage but one will be the S-IV, powered by four Pratt &Whitney LR115 oxy-hydrogen engines of 20,0001b thrust each. In the competition for this stage 22 firms were invited by NASAto participate; 35 attended the bidders' conference and bids were made by 11. ATLAS: BIG PLUS, SMALL MINUS During the past year the Convair Astronautics division and BoschAnna have been working intensively to fit the all-inertial guidance system originally designed for Titan into the Atlas. Followingextensive ground testing a complete missile has now successfully flown a 6,300-mile mission with the new system on board (butnot coupled to the control system and engines). The launching took place from Cape Canaveral on March 8, and marked the firsttime the Bosch Arma system had flown in an ICBM. The flight was the 22nd consecutive successful mission by AtlasC and D models, a record not yet equalled by any other large missile in the Western world. The run of good fortune came toan end two days later, when an Atlas launched from Cape Canaveral with operational Mk 3 nosecone and simulated war-head failed to rise more than 10ft. Counted-down in the late evening of March 10, the 85ft missile toppled over a few secondsafter a slow lift-off, and blew up on the pad. ASTRONAUTS NEXT YEAR Perhaps mindful of what has happened in the past, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration is being particularly guarded in its reference to what the Mercury Astronauts are to accomplish, and when. At a press conference in Cleveland on March 5, their spokesman, Col John Powers, merely asserted that the first man in space would be launched "sometime next year" (unless, as seems quite likely, the Soviet Union get there first). Col Powers later confirmed that the mission would start at Cape Canaveral. For three days before the launch the Astronaut selected would be on a special diet, and on the final day he would be "completely isolated from all outsiders" so that he could "concentrate on the flight." The first mission will comprise three 90min orbits and recovery from the South Atlantic, but later Astronauts are scheduled to complete 19 orbits. (Earlier, some "up-down" flights may be made in Redstones.) .-:•.•> Each station of the ballistic-missile early warning system ("Flight, January 29) will have five tracking radars which will take over from the giant fixed detection arrays. This photograph shows the prototype tracker at the RCA Plant in Moorestown, New Jersey. Each such dish weighs 200 tons and is enclosed in a weatherproof plastic sphere (faintly visible in the background). One BMEWS will be built in Yorkshire
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